As the popularity of solar panels continues to grow, expensive failures have been occurring at an ever increasing rate due to the prolonged effects of thermal expansion and the limited life cycles of solar panel components. All materials have a coefficient of thermal expansion, which is a thermal index indicating the relative degree a material expands or contracts as a function of temperature. Materials contract as they are cooled, and expand as they are warmed. Therefore, microelectronic devices employ materials with similar coefficients of thermal expansion that they can withstand extreme thermal cycling. In both space and terrestrial applications, an integrated circuit includes a solar cell diode which may be joined to a solar cell panel. These solar cell devices are comprised of a semiconductor material and are soldered to the solar panel, and interconnected to other circuits using rigid materials, such as rigid axial leads. These rigid axial leads can tolerate extreme thermal cycling for a period of time, but have a limited life cycle, and were designed for solder attachment to the solar panel. The solder joint in this design has limited thermal cycling capability due to thermal expansion mismatch, solder re-crystallization, and solder creep. Cracking in the solder joint is then followed by an electrical disconnect with the circuit. There is desired an improved microelectronic device adapted to withstand extreme thermal cycling, such as that encountered in a space or desert environment.
In addition, there is desired an improved method of manufacture that reduces the number of steps to package integrated circuits. For instance, some processes have separate sealing and soldering steps.